Sunday, May 17, 2015

Identifying itself as "The first and only comprehensive index for ancient language resources on the internet," lexicityis now online in an updated version. (I seem to have missed the first one.) From the site:

Two years ago we launched Lexicity - a site dedicated to providing
online study resources for ancient languages. We're happy to announce
the second version of our site, which looks cleaner, runs more
efficiently, and gets you to the resources faster.
With the second version, we're also committed to continual
updates and expansion for language resources. We hope to include other
languages soon as well, and we remain focused on creating an online
community for learners of ancient languages.

As you can see from the graphic above, there are links to resources for: Akkadian, Arabic, Aramaic, Church Slavonic, Coptic, Egyptian, Elamite, Ethiopic, Etruscan, Gaulish, Georgian, Gothic, Greek, Hebrew, Hittite, Latin, Mayan, Old Chinese, Old English, Old French, Old Frisian, Old High German, Old Irish, Old Norse, Old Persian, Old Turkic, Sanskrit, Sumerian, Syriac, Ugartitic.

Clicking on any of the languages will bring you to a page for subsequent links to Dictionaries, Grammars, Charts & Aids, Texts, and Other Resources.
I did a quick survey of resources connected to Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Syriac, and I think the site authors have done a great job of locating and linking available material. This is a great place to start if you are looking for resources in this ancient languages.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

I am happy to report that David P. Barrett has released a version 5 of his excellent Bible Mapperprogram. Barrett provided the maps for the Crossway ESV Bible Atlas which is the required atlas I use in my Survey of the Lands of the Bible class. From the description on the site:

Bible Mapper is the ideal tool for researching and creating maps of the biblical world. Virtually every known location and geographic feature in the Bible can be displayed and fully customized quickly and easily, making it a snap to create stunning maps adapted to your particular needs. Check out the gallery of pre-made maps that ship with Bible Mapper 5.

You can learn about all the features of this Windows program HERE. Notable new features include the capability to:

Create high resolution maps of Jerusalem (the Jerusalem Ordnance map of 1865 is also able to be overlaid on the terrain)

Upload your custom objects or styles to a repository to share with other registered users, or restrict access to yourself for easy import into other maps

If you want to get an idea of how the program works, you can use version 3 for free with no limitations. A key for the new version 5 costs $37. Here are examples of two maps I created using Bible Mapper.

One of the great benefits of this program is that any map you create is your own, and you don't need to obtain any copyright permissions or pay any costs to share your map. You simply need to cite Bible Mapper as the tool you used. A great example of how Bible Mapper has been utilized is at BibleAtlas.org where there are maps of every biblical location.